“What are we going to do?” screamed Matthew, all sense of dignity swept away by his fear. “What are we going to do?”

     “Shut up!” screamed back Shaun, close to panic himself. "Just shut up!"

     He looked across at Thomas, still slumped against the airlock wall. He was the clever one. Solving problems was supposed to be his job, but the wizard was still barely conscious. He wasn't going to be any use to them in his present condition.
Then I guess it's down to me, the woodsman thought grimly, getting himself under control with an effort. I may get through life with my muscles rather than my head but I'm hardly a simpleton. I can think well enough to get us out of this meant. He concentrated on the problem, and almost immediately an idea came to him.

     “This airlock’s got two doors!” he exclaimed joyfully.

     “So what?” replied Matthew. “If it can go through one, it can go through both.”

     “But not at the same time,” cried Shaun. “When it comes through that door there, we’ll be standing in this doorway here, and we hit it with everything we’ve got. Arrows, spells, everything. If we hurt it, drive it away, we’ll still have this second door closing between us and it and we’ll be safe.”

     “And if we can’t drive it away?” demanded Matthew.

     “Then we’ll be no worse off than we are now. Have you got a better idea?”

     “Look!” screamed Lirenna, pointing at the first door, and they turned to see one of the creature’s sheep intestine tentacles gently touching the window. The toughened glass stretched inwards like transparent rubber, and the Tharians scrambled madly through the second door as the terrifying hiss of escaping air returned.

     "Come on, Tom," said Shaun, grabbing the wizard and shaking him until his eyes focused on him. "Get your spells ready."

     Thomas nodded and shook his head as if trying to drive a fuzziness away. Then he took up position just on the other side of the open door, where he was joined by Shaun, Jerry and Lirenna. They braced themselves to stand firm against the gale of rushing air, and watched in horrified fascination as the first door was torn apart as though it were made of tissue paper.

     The creature was buffeted back by the howling gale, but hung on to the mangled remains of the door with its tentacles, the rest of its body waving behind it like a wind-sock. Then it began to pull itself in, oozing in through the razor edged hole in the door, and the wizards called the words of attack spells to their minds, preparing to cast them. Shaun put an arrow to his bow, pulled it back, aimed right at the middle if its head where all the tentacles came together, and let it fly.

     At such close range he couldn’t miss, and the arrow sank right up to its feathered fletches in the soft flesh. The creature reared back, its whole body shuddering and spasming wildly, and the wizards followed up with a hail of firebolts that left burning scorchmarks in its soft, rubbery flesh. Shaun was forced to shift his position as the door started to close and he managed to shoot off one more arrow through the narrowing gap while above him, letting go of his handhold for a moment to float in the low gravity, Thomas cast his flaming sphere spell, using up the last of his sulphur and powdered iron in the process. He wouldn’t be able to cast that spell again until he renewed his stocks of those essential ingredients.

     They gathered around the window to see the effect their attack was having on the creature as the door clicked shut and silence fell again. Thomas’s flaming sphere was completely wasted as it burned out in the vacuum, but Shaun’s second arrow had lodged firmly in the creature’s side and it was thrashing around with all its tentacles in an attempt to knock it out. Shaun was interested to see small geysers of body fluids gushing out through both wounds, and deduced that its thick hide was what protected it against the vacuum. A good swing with a sword would probably have been devastating against it, he decided, if the wound could be inflicted before its innate ability to turn solid materials as soft as wet mud blunted its edge.

     The creature continued to thrash around for several minutes, but slowly its movements became slower and weaker and the flow of body fluids from its arrow wounds slowed until scabs of congealed matter formed over them, preventing any further loss. The creature then gently eased itself back out through the door, carefully so as not to bump the arrows against anything and re-open its wounds, and disappeared from sight back the way it had come. The Tharians breathed massive sighs of relief and collapsed gently onto the tunnel’s floor, too exhausted to do anything except just lie there for a while.

     “Do you think it’ll be back?” asked Matthew, his head resting on a large clump of bracken.

     “Who knows?” replied Shaun. “One thing’s for sure, though. We ought to get out of here as quick as possible, just in case.”

     “Can we rest for just a minute?” begged Diana. “I’m so tired, and I’ve got the worst headache I’ve ever had. I’ve tried healing myself, but it doesn’t do any good.”

     It turned out that they all had the same symptoms to a greater or lesser degree. A sign that the mysterious illness from which they were all suffering was getting worse, but although they were all feeling weak and tired and wanted nothing more than to just lie there and rest for a while, Shaun insisted that they go at least as far as the next airlock. After some half hearted protests and complaints the others eventually agreed, and so they stirred themselves and resumed their progress along the tunnel.

☆☆☆

     As they went, Thomas was alarmed to find that his hands were shaking, the first time in his life they’d ever done that, and he forced them to stop in case it interfered with his spellcasting. He took out his water bottle and took a small sip, noting with interest that it was still half full. This lack of thirst, despite how little they’d been drinking since leaving Kronosia, must be another symptom of this mysterious illness, he thought, but at least this is a useful symptom since there’s no telling when we’ll come across more water. The small amount we’ve got now might have to last us a long time yet.

     The next airlock turned out to be three hundred yards away, and as soon as they were within the comforting confinement of its two doors they relaxed with great relief and settled down for a rest. They must have fallen asleep for a while, because the next thing Thomas knew darkness had fallen and he had no memory of the gradual fading of the light. He groped his way over to where Lirenna had settled herself down.

     He took her hand and was alarmed at how dry and warm it was, in contrast to her normal moist coolness. He could feel the skin of the back of her hand wrinkling when he gently rubbed his fingers across it, and when he touched her face he could feel lines around her eyes. She was drying out, and wrinkling like a prune.

     Thomas was now becoming badly frightened, and feared that this illness might be more serious than they’d first thought. He had no idea what was causing it, or how to cure it, but the dryness of Lirenna’s skin worried him more than anything else and some instinct told him that this symptom, at least, might be helped if he could get some water into her. His mental image of her as a ripe plum slowly drying out to become a prune scared him so badly that he shook her awake, produced his water bottle and made her take a long drink from it.

     The demi shae blinked dopily at him as she drank, but then came more fully awake and took the bottle in her own hands, emptying it with a few deep, gurgling swallows. “Thanks,” she said, wiping her chin. “I feel a little better now. Hey, wait a minute, this is your bottle!”

     “You looked as though you needed it,” replied Thomas. “I think that’s what’s wrong with us.”

     “What?”

     “It’s pretty simple really. We’re all just getting badly dehydrated.”

     “But we’re not thirsty!”

     “Yes, I know. That’s what threw me off at first. We're suffering from some kind of illness, but all it does is stop us from getting thirsty. Everything else that’s been happening to us, the headaches, the loss of appetite, the inability to concentrate on anything for long, have all been caused by dehydration because we haven’t been drinking.”

     Lirenna looked thoughtful. “Yes, that’s possible,” she replied. “So all we’ve got to do is drink more?”

     “Yes, and that’s the problem,” replied Thomas, looking at his empty water bottle. “We haven’t got much water now, and in this low gravity the water in these tunnels spreads to form a thin film over everything instead of puddling, as it would down on Tharia, so there’s no way we can refill our bottles. We could try sucking the sap out of some of these plants, but I’ve got a feeling we’re going to need more water than that. A lot more.”

     “And some plants have toxic sap,” added Diana.

     Shaun had been listening and now joined in. “What’ll happen to us if we don’t find any water?” he asked.

     “The symptoms will carry on getting worse,” replied Thomas. “Worse headaches, more violent trembling. Continued loss of mental functions. In the final stages, convulsions, coma and death.”

     Shaun stared in fear. “How long have we got?”

     “I’ve got no idea. A day, maybe two. There’s no point trying to conserve our water, though. We might just as well drink it all now and get whatever benefit we can from it. And from now on, we use the bottles to keep our urine in. If we fail to find any water, we’ll have to drink that.”

     “You’re kidding!” exclaimed Lirenna in outrage and revulsion.

     “I wish I was,” replied Thomas soberly.

     “Alright,” agreed Shaun, “but with just one minor alteration. One of us should drink all the water we’ve got left. That way, one of us will be fit and well and able to go on looking for water after the rest of us can’t go on any longer.” He looked at Lirenna. “Since you’ve already had all Tom’s water, it should be you.”

     “Agreed!” said Thomas.

     The demi shae protested, but Shaun and Thomas insisted and, when the others woke up and had the situation explained to them, they also agreed that it was a good idea. Eventually, with everyone else ganging up on her, Lirenna was forced to accept the idea, but she still felt guilt and shame as she took everyone’s water bottle in turn and drained it.

     Afterwards, though, she felt much better. Her headache faded away and her mind cleared. "By the Gods, you look awful!" she said, looking at Thomas. "I didn't see it before, my own condition was too bad, but now... You look as if you've been wandering the desert for a month, or you would if you were more sunburned." She looked around at the others. "The rest of you as well."

     "We should move fast, then," said Shaun. "Keep going while we still can."

     Lirenna nodded soberly, and she led the way as they continued on down the tunnel.